Sergey Borisovich Merzhanov architect biography. Stalin's favorite architect was from Rostov

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26. Architect of Stalin, Merzhanov Miron Ivanovich.

One day in the middle of the summer of 1949, Colonel Zhelezov came to us as usual. This time the retinue was more numerous than always, and among the KGB officers in military suits, a tall, dark, stooped man dressed in an elegant suit stood out sharply. Foma Fomich introduced him to us as the new leader of our group, reorganized into an “architectural and artistic” group.

Then you yourself will get to know each other better, but this does not relieve you of responsibility for the work of the artists, said Zhelezov, turning to Ivashov-Musatov, and the authorities left.

/...Looking ahead, I note that as the group worked under the leadership of Musatov, it continued to work in the future, since Merzhanov was assigned a nook right next to the studio, where he, reclusive, pored over some drawings and drawings. And we were burning with curiosity.../

The next day he came out to us stretching, bending his elbows and sharply throwing them back, trying to straighten his back.

Well, friends, let's introduce ourselves, I'm an architect, I'm building sanatoriums on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, I built dachas for Comrade Stalin, and he named one of the sanatoriums he built, it seems, if I'm not mistaken, him. Voroshilov. Regarding his sentence, he answered briefly: “Article 58-10, part one, for “kowtowing to the West”, 10 years in prison. Laughing, he bowed dramatically, pretending to wave a hat with feathers in front of us. And in general, he turned out to be a man witty and cheerful, but did not even try to hide his sense of superiority from us, he was imposing beyond measure.

I noticed his words: “I’m building sanatoriums,” that is, in the present tense, but I was embarrassed to ask him a question. This soon became clear without my asking any questions - he simply continued to work on the project for the MTB sanatorium on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, which he had begun designing even before his arrest. After a while, he showed us sketches of the design of the main building, made in watercolors on large sheets of whatman paper, which fit beautifully into the picturesque landscape of the mountainous sea coast.

Every morning, Merzhanov, passing through the studio into his nook, loudly greeted us: “Well, what are you sad about, bohemians? The most important thing in life is to be able to sharpen a pencil correctly!” And indeed,

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He sharpened pencils amazingly beautifully and quickly - with just a few strokes of a safety razor. The cuts were long and graceful. During the entire time he worked in the group, he persistently tried to teach each of us this art, but for me, for example, the lessons did not serve me well - I continued to fix things at random...

Over time, Merzhanov moderated his arrogance, became simpler, more friendly, and probably sensed our growing alienation. Hence these daily greetings and lessons on sharpening pencils. Between ourselves, we came to the conclusion that he was simply trying to gain our affection, although we could not understand why. The majority did not react to his flirtations, we saw that he was a flying bird, and a high-flying one at that - today in prison, and tomorrow, look, again near Stalin - we were afraid of him.

The exception was Ivashov-Musatov, who, it seemed to me, slightly curried favor with him, although he was a proud, proud, independent man. But perhaps I was wrong, and he simply admired the architect’s talent? After some time, they could already be seen together on a walk, in the dining room. They were arguing about something in a low voice, which was surprising, since everyone knew Musatov’s habit of speaking very loudly, and generally shouting in disputes. Moreover, Merzhanov was not shy about strong expressions, while Musatov, hearing them, turned a deaf ear, although in other cases, when swearing, he shouted in rage: “Don’t you dare, don’t dare, it’s like coming to church and dropping your pants and sound a trumpet!"

Already a month after Merzhanov appeared with us, we encountered a rather unusual phenomenon in our conditions: Colonel Zhelezov often visited us and, having quickly greeted everyone, hurried to his nook, where they talked for a long time. It seemed to us that they were even arguing about something! It looked strange and mysterious.

Such meetings were repeated every three to four days for a month, and then Merzhanov disappeared. He just disappeared. The last time he was seen was at night, when he, accompanied by Lieutenant Colonel Mishin (more on him later), left the bedroom and was like that...

He appeared at the sharashka again two weeks later. He arrived not in a funnel, but in the boss’s car and in company with two civilians with a military bearing. They carried luggage behind him - baskets with grapes and other fruits, and he walked with a careless gait, as if he were followed not by MTB ranks, but by his adjutants. Zhelezov immediately appeared. A couple of minutes later the authorities left...

We were terribly intrigued by this event, but no one dared to be the first to inquire about the essence of what was happening; everyone pretended that nothing extraordinary had happened.

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Finally, Miron Ivanovich came out to us, stood, rocking from his toes to his heels, and asked loudly: “Of course, you are burning with curiosity, aren’t you? Well, I won’t test your patience, just leave your hands alone!”

He said that, accompanied by two MTB officers and Colonel Zhelezov, he flew to Sochi and lived for several days at the Intourist hotel. Then he was taken to Tsikhis-Dziri, where a sanatorium was built according to his design, then to Batumi and back to Sochi. They took him to the Caucasus to link the project to the area. He had to work with two free architects from Moscow, who were subordinated to him for ten days. It was the last event that probably gave him special pleasure: “You know, it was quite pleasant to command them, having a 10-year sentence on my neck. It was very gratifying to see how these fraters were six with me, catching my every word - the word of a bedraggled prisoner! And you If you could see in what condition they arrived to me, their pants were probably full of fear - they took them in Moscow at night. They later confessed to me that they thought they were being arrested!” - and he laughed.

Most of us had already been to the camps and heard enough that it was difficult to surprise our brother. But for an architect, the home architect of a great leader, to use criminal terminology, and with such cynicism?! Well well! To be proud of the fact that for 10 days he commanded two people who were scared to death, knowing that security officers don’t come just like that at night? It was uncomfortable to listen to all this. Even Ivashov-Musatov, apparently embarrassed, left the studio without listening to him.

Further, he told and showed in person how he was taken to restaurants, and the MTB officers tried to please him in everything and were more in the role of friends than security, since: “... we drank wine together, and were in women’s society. ..” He was joyfully excited and said that fortune should soon turn to face him: “They are unlikely to get by without me - there are, of course, many architects, but there is only one Merzhanov!”

The Rostov organization of the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments received a letter from Moscow, from Doctor of Architecture Professor B.M. Merzhanova. Boris Mironovich has Rostov roots, and asked to find out where his famous ancestors lived in Rostov. “In Rostov-on-Don, my father, the famous architect Miron Ivanovich Merzhanov, and his brother, an equally famous person, sports journalist Martyn Ivanovich Merzhanov, were born and lived before the revolution,” the letter says. “Now the interest of researchers in their life and creativity, and that’s why I’m trying to find out where they lived in Rostov"... The personality of Rostovite Miron Ivanovich Merzhanov is really very interesting. In 1929, while still a young and unknown architect of the city of Kislovodsk, he won an open competition for the design and construction of a military sanatorium in Sochi, which was later awarded the Grand Prix at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1936. He was noticed in Moscow, and began to be involved in the design of other objects (mainly dachas, holiday homes and sanatoriums for government members). In 1933, along with other objects, Miron Ivanovich made a project for a small dacha for Stalin in the village of Volynskoye near Moscow, which later received the unofficial name "near dacha". Soon after this, Comrade Stalin himself wanted to see the architect. It was about building a dacha in the Sochi area. The leader did not give any orders regarding construction. He expressed only one wish - that there were no fountains. The dacha was built in a short time, and Stalin was pleased. Then Merzhanov built another dacha by order of Stalin - on the Kholodnaya River near the city of Gagra, and then in the town of Mussera, in the vicinity of Gudauta. Rostov resident Merzhanov thus entered the circle of those close to the leader. At Stalin's request, he made sketches of the highest state awards conceived by Stalin - the gold stars of the Hero of the Soviet Union and the Hero of Socialist Labor. Before 1943, the following facilities were also built according to Merzhanov’s designs: The new building of the Central House of Architects (together with A.K. Burov and A.V. Vlasov, Moscow, opened in February 1941); NKVD sanatorium "Kislovodsk" (Kislovodsk, 1935); sanatorium of the Council of Ministers of the USSR "Red Stones" (Kislovodsk, 1939); Stalin's dachas - in Matsesta; "Cold River" near Gagra; "Bocharov Stream"(originally intended for Voroshilov); "Green Grove" (all built in the 1930s); about fifty dachas for Soviet senior managers (in the Caucasus and Moscow region) In addition, according to the planning decision of M.I. Merzhanov by architects A.I. Vasiliev and A.P. Romanovsky developed a project for the Naval Academy in Leningrad. A special place in Merzhanov’s creative biography is occupied by state award badges made according to his sketches - Gold Star of Hero of the Soviet Union(approved by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on August 1, 1939) and Gold Star of the Hero of Socialist Labor(approved May 22, 1940). On August 12, 1943, Merzhanov was arrested, and on March 8, 1944, he was sentenced to 10 years in camps under Art. 58, part 1a, 8, 10, 11, 17, 19 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR. He was transferred to a camp near Komsomolsk-on-Amur, where he miraculously managed to avoid being sent further to Magadan. He was transferred from the general area to an industrial barracks - a sharashka, in which he lived and worked until the beginning of 1949. In Komsomolsk-on-Amur, he took part in the construction of the monumental building of the Palace of Culture, the "ITR Club of Plant 126" and a number of other structures. At the beginning of 1949, Merzhanov was unexpectedly sent to Moscow; at the Yaroslavl station he was handed over to state security officers. The next day, right in camp clothes, he had to appear before the Minister of State Security. He commissioned the architect to develop a project for the MGB sanatorium. For this purpose, Merzhanov was brought to Sochi and shown the approximate location of the future construction (the final location was chosen by Merzhanov himself). He was then returned to Moscow and placed in the Sukhanovskaya prison, which was one of the worst torture prisons of the Stalin era. The architect was given high-quality tools and materials for the drawings, but as soon as the work was completed, the project was taken away. Some time later, Merzhanov was again called to Abakumov, and then the detailed design of the sanatorium began, which was carried out in another sharashka - this time in Marfin near Moscow (officially called the “regime design bureau of the economic administration of the USSR Ministry of State Security”). At the end of 1951, the architect was sent to Irkutsk prison, then to Krasnoyarsk. A happy accident helped him start working again in his specialty (even if at first as a prisoner) - in the Kraiproekt design organization. Miron Ivanovich was released in 1954, and in 1956 he was completely rehabilitated... ...On the night of December 13, 1975, in Moscow, the architect died of a long-term lung disease. He was buried in the Armenian Cemetery; in the same family burial rest the ashes of his mother and brothers - artist Yakov Merzhanov and journalist Martyn Merzhanov. This is the kind of person who was born and raised in Rostov, or more precisely, in Nakhichevan-on-Don. In the State Archives of the Rostov Region they found documents stating that the house of the Merzhanov family, registered in the name of their father - Merzhanov Ivan Mironovich - was registered in the accounting books for 1916 and 1917, and was located on 16th line, 8.

Miron Ivanovich Merzhanov (Miran Oganesovich Merzhanyants, September 23, 1895 - December 1975) - Soviet architect. In 1934-1941 - personal architect of I.V. Stalin, author of projects for the dachas of Stalin and the top leaders of the USSR in Kuntsevo, Matsesta, Bocharov Ruchey.

In 1943-1954 he was repressed and worked in architectural “sharashkas” from Sochi to Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Author of the projects for the Golden Stars of Hero of the Soviet Union and Hero of Socialist Labor (1938-1939).

Biography

Early years and beginning of career

The architect was born in the city of Nakhichevan-on-Don (today within the boundaries of Rostov-on-Don) into a prosperous Armenian family. Father Ivan served as an official and manager at the factory of the merchant Hunanyan in Slavyansk, and was a distant relative of I.K. Aivazovsky. All three of Ivan's sons became talented specialists - each in their own field. Miron's middle son and younger brother Martyn became a famous sports journalist who founded the weekly Football in 1960; the younger Yakov worked as a theater artist in Moscow, but died early. Before the outbreak of the First World War, Miron managed to graduate from a classical gymnasium and enter the St. Petersburg Institute of Civil Engineers. He worked part-time as a draftsman in the workshop of A.I. Tamanyan, then was drafted into the army, but did not manage to get to the front.

After the October Revolution, he fled from hungry St. Petersburg home to Rostov. Trying to avoid being drafted into Denikin’s first-line troops, he voluntarily joined the engineering battalion of the White Army, and after its defeat he settled in Krasnodar. In 1920-1923 he continued his studies at the Kuban Polytechnic Institute, easily entered the circle of local professionals, and in 1922 he married the daughter of a Kislovodsk architect, Elizaveta Emmanuilna Khodzhaeva.

Merzhanov's first independent construction was his own house in Kislovodsk (1925). They followed him

indoor market in Essentuki
State Bank building in Pyatigorsk
one of the buildings of the sanatorium “10 Years of October” (now “Pearl of the Caucasus”) in Kislovodsk

In these buildings, formally belonging to constructivism, Merzhanov’s style was revealed, which remained until the end of his days - the desire for spectacular monumentality of buildings, combined with romanticization, visual lightening of structures, as well as the architect’s favorite detail - corner balconies and corner niches, breaking the smooth walls of buildings . Later Merzhanov called I.V. Zholtovsky and Frank Lloyd Wright his main teachers.

Thirties

In 1929, Merzhanov won an open competition to design the Red Army sanatorium in Sochi, which was personally supervised by K. E. Voroshilov. The sanatorium, financed by a loan from the military, was opened on June 1, 1934, and in the same year it was named after Voroshilov. The architect and the People's Commissar became personal friends; This friendship continued even after Voroshilov’s resignation and Merzhanov’s release. The sanatorium was built in a constructivist manner, but Merzhanov deliberately masked the most rigid constructivist elements, harmoniously combining simple geometric shapes with the mountainous terrain of the coast. The image of the sanatorium and the adjacent funicular was replicated by propaganda, and Merzhanov became one of the most popular Soviet architects.

In 1931, Merzhanov was summoned to Moscow and appointed chief architect of the economic administration of the USSR Central Executive Committee. Simultaneously with the completion of the Voroshilov sanatorium, according to the instructions of the Central Executive Committee, Merzhanov built the Bocharov Ruchey complex of state dachas. He supervised the design of the Naval Academy in Leningrad, the design of buildings for the new city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, and together with A.K. Burov he built the Moscow House of Architects. In the second half of the thirties, Merzhanov built two large sanatoriums in Kislovodsk - “Sanatorium-Hotel NKVD” (now “Kislovodsk”) and “Red Stones”. This is undoubtedly Stalinist architecture, which was not limited in funds for high-quality stone finishing, and retained the “southern” romanticism typical of the architect.

In 1943-1954 he was repressed and worked in architectural sharashkas from Sochi to Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Author of the projects for the Golden Stars of Hero of the Soviet Union and Hero of Socialist Labor (1938-1939).

Biography

Early years and beginning of career

The architect was born in the city of Nakhichevan-on-Don (today within the boundaries of Rostov-on-Don) into a prosperous Armenian family. Father Ivan served as an official and manager at the factory of the merchant Hunanyan in Slavyansk, and was a distant relative of I.K. Aivazovsky. All three of Ivan’s sons became, each in their own field, talented specialists. Miron's middle son and younger brother Martyn became a famous sports journalist who founded the weekly Football in 1960; the younger Yakov worked as a theater artist in Moscow, but died early. Before the outbreak of the First World War, Meran managed to graduate from a classical gymnasium and enter the St. Petersburg Institute of Civil Engineers. He worked part-time as a draftsman in the workshop of A.I. Tamanyan, then was drafted into the army, but did not manage to get to the front.

Merzhanov's first independent construction was his own house in Kislovodsk (1925). They followed him

indoor market in Essentuki
State Bank building in Pyatigorsk
one of the buildings of the sanatorium “10 Years of October” (now “Pearl of the Caucasus”) in Kislovodsk

Thirties

In 1933-1934, Merzhanov designed the first Stalinist dacha - the so-called. nearby dacha in Kuntsevo. The initially one-story house was built up to two floors in 1943 (according to other sources, 1948), when the architect was already in prison; the author of the perestroika project is unknown, but it is likely that Merzhanov’s own project was used. In 1934, a satisfied customer called Merzhanov personally and set the task to design a complex of state dachas in Matsesta, and in 1935 - on the Kholodnaya River near Gagra. All these objects were designed in the style of modernized classics (see post-constructivism), equidistant from both constructivism and the “Stalinist Empire”, which led some authors (D. Khmelnitsky) to argue that Stalin’s personal tastes differed significantly from what was actually implanted in Soviet architecture.

In 1938, Merzhanov developed a number of projects for the Golden Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union (the first Heroes were awarded only the Order of Lenin); the most concise option was chosen. In 1939, he proposed two versions of the Hammer and Sickle medal, this time the smallest one was chosen. The official approval of the Stars took place on August 1, 1939 and May 22, 1940.

Arrest and "sharashki"

After the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, Merzhanov designed civil defense facilities for Moscow, including the arrangement of the Mayakovskaya metro station before the historical meeting on November 6, 1941. After the evacuation of most Moscow architects to Chimkent, Merzhanov and K. S. Alabyan remained in Moscow.

On August 12, 1943, Merzhanov, his wife and a close circle of employees were arrested. On March 8, 1944, Merzhanov was sentenced without trial to 10 years in camps under Article 58, Part 1a, 8, 10, 11, 17, 19 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR. The indictment was based solely on the testimony of a narrow circle of Merzhanov’s employees and the fact of his service with Denikin. The fact that he remained in Moscow in October 1941 was proof of “treason.” Merzhanov’s wife died in the camps in the mid-forties, and the architect himself, transported to Komsomolsk-on-Amur, which was well known to him, was pulled out of the general barracks by the camp authorities and again took up design. In Komsomolsk, the city Palace of Culture and the aircraft factory cultural center were built according to his design.

In 1948, Merzhanov was transferred to Moscow, where V.S. Abakumov personally assigned him the task of designing a sanatorium for the MGB in Sochi. Two were deployed for the work. The architect worked in the Sukhanov prison and in the sharashka in Marfino (where he met A.I. Solzhenitsyn. In 1950, the project was approved by Abakumov, and Merzhanov began building his largest and probably best work - the Dzerzhinsky sanatorium However, soon after Abakumov’s arrest, at the end of 1951, Merzhanov was removed from the construction, and until March 1953 he was in the Irkutsk prison, then in the Krasnoyarsk transfer (the sanatorium was completed in 1954).

Liberation

Formally released in 1954 to indefinite exile, Miron Merzhanov settled in Krasnoyarsk. Since 1954, he headed Krasnoyarskgrazhdanproekt (the chief architect of the city was also an exiled Armenian, Gevorg Kochar). According to the designs of Miron Merzhanov, the regional House of Soviets on Revolution Square, the Central District Committee of the CPSU, and the Krasnoyarsk branch of the State Bank on the street were built in Krasnoyarsk. Dubrovinsky, the main building of the medical institute, the Palace of Culture of the Krasmash plant - an attempt to return from the Empire style to constructivism, an extension to the Sovkino cinema.

He was rehabilitated on May 30, 1956. In 1960 M.I. Merzhanov left Krasnoyarsk for Moscow. Worked at Mosproekt-1. Died in 1975.

Administration building of the Krasnoyarsk Territory

Family

Son - Merzhanov, Boris Mironovich (born 1929), Doctor of Architecture.
Brother - Merzhanov, Martyn Ivanovich (1900-1974).
Grandson - Merzhanov, Sergei Borisovich (born 1959).

Miron Ivanovich Merzhanov (Meran Oganesovich Merzhanyants, September 23, 1895 December 1975) was a Soviet-era architect who built primarily in the resort towns of the Caucasus. In 1934-1941, his architect I.V. Stalin, the author of projects for the dachas of Stalin and the top leaders of the USSR in Kuntsevo, Matsesta, Bocharov Ruchey. Repressed in 1942-1956, he worked in architectural sharashkas from Sochi to Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Co-author of the projects of the Golden Stars of the Hero of the Soviet Union and the Hero of Socialist Labor (1938-1939).

The architect was born into a prosperous Armenian family in the city of Nakhichevan-on-Don (now within the boundaries of Rostov-on-Don). His father served as an official and was a distant relative of I.K. Aivazovsky. Before the start of the first important war, Meran managed to complete the classical gymnasium and enter the St. Petersburg Institute of Civil Engineers. He worked part-time as a draftsman in the workshop of A.I. Tamanyan, then was drafted into the army, but did not manage to get to the front. After the October Revolution, he fled from hungry St. Petersburg home to Rostov. Trying to avoid being drafted into Denikin’s first-line troops, he voluntarily joined the engineering battalion of the White Army, and after its defeat, he settled in Krasnodar. In 1920-1923 he continued his studies at the Kuban Polytechnic Institute, easily entered the circle of local professionals, and in 1922 he married the daughter of a Kislovodsk architect, Elizaveta Emmanuilna Khodzhaeva. The first independent construction of Merzhanov's personal building in Kislovodsk (1925). They followed him

indoor market in Essentuki

construction of the State Bank in Pyatigorsk

In these buildings, which formally belonged to constructivism, Merzhanov’s style was manifested, preserved until the end of his days, the attraction to the spectacular monumentality of buildings, combined with romanticization, visual lightening of structures, and in addition, the architect’s favorite trifle - corner balconies and corner niches, breaking the smooth walls of buildings. Later Merzhanov called I.V. Zholtovsky and Frank Lloyd Wright his main teachers.

In 1929, Merzhanov won an open competition to design the Red Army sanatorium in Sochi, which was personally supervised by K. E. Voroshilov. The sanatorium, financed by a loan from the military, was opened on June 1, 1934, and in the same year it was named after Voroshilov. The architect and the People's Commissar became personal friends; This friendship was preserved even after Voroshilov’s resignation and Merzhanov’s release. The sanatorium was built in a constructivist manner, but Merzhanov deliberately masked the most rigid constructivist elements, harmoniously combining simple geometric shapes with the mountainous terrain of the coast. The image of the sanatorium and the adjacent funicular was replicated by propaganda, and Merzhanov became one of the most popular Soviet architects.

In 1931 Merzhanov was summoned to Moscow and appointed chief architect of the economic administration of the USSR Central Executive Committee. Simultaneously with the completion of the Voroshilov sanatorium, according to the instructions of the Central Executive Committee, Merzhanov built a complex of state dachas Bocharov Ruchei. He supervised the design of the Naval Academy in Leningrad, the design of buildings for the new city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, and together with A.K. Burov he built the capital’s House of Architects. In the second half of the thirties, Merzhanov built two large sanatoriums in Kislovodsk, the NKVD Sanatorium-Hotel (now Kislovodsk) and Red Stones. This is undoubtedly Stalinist architecture, which was not limited in funds for high-quality stone finishing, and retained the southern romanticism usual for the architect.

In 1933-1934 Merzhanov designed the first Stalinist dacha, the so-called. nearby dacha in Kuntsevo. The initially one-story monastery was built up to two floors in 1943 (according to other sources, 1948), when the architect was already in prison; the author of the perestroika project is unknown, but one must think that Merzhanov’s own plan was used. In 1934, a satisfied customer called Merzhanov personally and set the task to design a complex of state dachas in Matsesta, and in 1935 on the Kholodnaya River near Gagra. All these objects were designed in the style of modernized classics (see post-constructivism), equidistant from both constructivism and the Stalinist Empire style, which allowed some authors (D. Khmelnitsky) to argue that Stalin’s personal tastes differed significantly from what was essentially implanted in Soviet architecture.

In 1938, Merzhanov developed a system of projects for the Golden Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union (the first Heroes were awarded only the Order of Lenin); the most concise option was chosen. In 1939, he proposed two versions of the Hammer and Sickle medal, this time the miniature one was chosen. The official approval of the Stars took place on August 1, 1939 and May 22, 1940.

After the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, Merzhanov designed civil defense facilities in Moscow, including the arrangement of the Mayakovskaya metro station before the historical meeting on November 6, 1941. After the evacuation of most Moscow architects to Chimkent, Merzhanov and K. S. Alabyan remained in Moscow.

On August 12, 1943, Merzhanov, his wife and a close circle of employees were arrested. On March 8, 1944, Merzhanov was sentenced without trial to 10 years in camps under Article 58, Part 1a, 8, 10, 11, 17, 19 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR. The indictment was based only on the testimony of a narrow circle of Merzhanov’s employees and the fact of his service with Denikin. The fact that he remained in Moscow in October 1941 was proof of treason. Merzhanov’s wife was not of particular value and perished in the camps in the mid-forties, and the architect himself, transported to the well-known Komsomolsk-on-Amur, was pulled out of the general barracks by the camp authorities and took up design again. In Komsomolsk, the city Palace of Culture and the aircraft factory cultural center were built according to his design.

In 1948, Merzhanov was transferred to Moscow, where V. S. Abakumov personally assigned him the task of designing a sanatorium for the MGB in Sochi. For the work, two were deployed. The architect worked in the Sukhanov prison and in the sharashka in Marfino (where he met A.I. Solzhenitsyn. In 1950, the plan was approved by Abakumov, and Merzhanov began to build his largest and probably best work, the Dzerzhinsky sanatorium. However, Soon after the arrest of Abakumov, at the end of 1951, Merzhanov was removed from the construction, and until March 1953 he was in the Irkutsk prison, after which he was in Krasnoyarsk transit (the sanatorium was completed in 1954).

Formally released in 1954 to indefinite exile, he settled in Krasnoyarsk and headed the Krasnoyarskgrazhdanproekt (the chief architect of the city was also an exiled Armenian, G. B. Kochar). According to Merzhanov’s designs, the Central District Committee of the CPSU, the city cinema, a branch of the State Bank and the Krasmash Palace of Culture were built in Krasnoyarsk, an attempt to return from the Empire style to constructivism.

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